European Committee for Standardization

European Committee for Standardization logo.

members
aliates
partner standardisation bodies
The European Committee for Standardization (CEN,
French: Comit Europen de Normalisation) is a non-
prot organisation whose mission is to foster the Euro-
pean economy in global trading, the welfare of European
citizens and the environment by providing an ecient
infrastructure to interested parties for the development,
maintenance and distribution of coherent sets of stan-
dards and specications.
The CEN was founded in 1961. Its thirty three na-
tional members work together to develop European
Standards (ENs) in various sectors to build a European
internal market for goods and services and to position
Europe in the global economy. CEN is ocially recog-
nised as a European standards body by the European
Union; the other ocial European standards bodies are
the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standard-
ization (CENELEC) and the European Telecommunica-
tions Standards Institute (ETSI).
[1][2]
More than 60,000 technical experts as well as business
federations, consumer and other societal interest organ-
isations are involved in the CEN network that reaches
over 460 million people. CEN is the ocially rec-
ognized standardisation representative for sectors other
than electrotechnical (CENELEC) and telecommunica-
tions (ETSI). On 12 February 1999 the European Par-
liament noted in a resolution that CEN, CENELEC and
ETSI co-operate smoothly and that a merger of the three
standardisaton bodies would not have clear advantages.
[3]
The standardisation bodies of the thirty national members
represent the twenty seven member states of the Euro-
pean Union, three countries of the European Free Trade
Association (EFTA) and countries which are likely to
join the EU or EFTA in the future. CEN is contributing
to the objectives of the European Union and European
Economic Area with technical standards (EN standards)
which promote free trade, the safety of workers and
consumers, interoperability of networks, environmental
protection, exploitation of research and development pro-
grammes, and public procurement. An example of
mandatory standards are those for materials and products
used in construction and listed under the Construction
Products Directive. The CE mark is a declaration by the
manufacturer that a product complies with the respective
EU directive and hence the harmonized standard(s) ref-
erenced by the directive(s).
CEN (together with CENELEC) owns the Keymark, a
voluntary quality mark for products and services. Aprod-
uct bearing the Keymark demonstrates conformity to Eu-
ropean Standards.
1 Membership
The current CEN Members are all member states of the
European Union; three of the EFTA members: Iceland,
Norway, Switzerland; and other states: Macedonia,
Turkey.
[4]
The current aliates are Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt, Georgia,
Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Montenegro,
Morocco, Serbia, Tunisia and Ukraine.
[5]
The current partner standardisation bodies are Australia,
Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan.
[6]
2 The Vienna Agreement
The Vienna Agreement was signed by CEN and the
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in
1991 but came in force in the mid-2000s. Its primary aim
1
2 5 EXTERNAL LINKS
is to avoid duplication of (potentially conicting) stan-
dards between CEN and ISO. In the last decade CEN has
adopted a number of ISO standards which replaced the
corresponding CEN standards.
[7]
3 See also
CENELEC is the European Committee for Elec-
trotechnical Standardization.
Ecma International
ETSI
Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements
International Organization for Standardization
List of EN standards
4 References
[1] Council Directive 83/189/EEC of 28 March 1983 laying
down a procedure for the provision of information in the
eld of technical standards and regulations. Ocial Jour-
nal of the European Communities. April 26, 1983. This
directive only recognises CEN and CENELEC as Euro-
pean standards institutions. Accessed 2009-04-27.
[2] See Annex 1 of Directive 98/34/EC of the European Par-
liament and of the Council of 22 June 1998 laying down a
procedure. Ocial Journal of the European Communities.
July 21, 1998. Accessed 2009-04-27.
[3] European Parliament: Resolution on the report from the
Commission to the Council and the European Parliament
Eciency and Accountability in European Standardis-
ation under the New Approach(COM(98)0291 C4-
0442/98). Ocial Journal of the European Communi-
ties 12 February 1999. Other language versions can be
accessed from European Commission: Directorate Gen-
eral Enterprise and Industry: Standardisation. Accessed
2009-04-27.
[4] CEN members. Cen.eu. Retrieved 2012-08-27.
[5] CEN aliates. Cen.eu. Retrieved 2012-08-27.
[6] CENpartner standardization bodies. Cen.eu. Retrieved
2012-08-27.
[7] G. Malcorps, I. Quintana-Soria (2007). The Vienna
Agreement CEN as an International Partner. CEN
StandarDays (Day 2 Session 5). CEN.
5 External links
European Committee for Standardization
VERUS Certication. CE Mark Notied Body
European Commission: Enterprise and Industry:
European standards: European Union standards pol-
icy homepage
W3J.Com: EN Standards The list of all EN (CEN)
published standards. (Not complete)
NORMAPME The European Oce of Crafts,
Trades and Small and Medium sized Enterprises for
Standardisation
Sample of certications for Playground equipment
safety
Eurokody Design Structure with European Stan-
dards in Poland
3
6 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses
6.1 Text
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6.2 Images
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